Describe and explain three adaptations of succulent plants that allow them to live in hot and dry conditions.

There are many to choose from here but we'll take the two most important. Many succulents such as cacti have needles instead of leaves. This reduces the amount of water lost via transpiration meaning that the plant can survive for longer periods between rainfall. Succulents also generally have shallow and widespread roots. Since rainfall is infrequent in desert climates, when it does rain the water doesn't travel far down in the soil but stays mostly near the surface before it either evaporates or is absorbed by plants. This means that when rainfall does occur the plant will absorb as much of it as possible whilst also having a root system that is energy efficient. Lastly, succulents have large vacuoles (structures/organelles within the cell body that store nutrients, water, salts) that can swell up a lot, giving ample storage space for large amounts of water allowing the plant to survive for longer between rainfall.

HP
Answered by Henry P. Maths tutor

5158 Views

See similar Maths GCSE tutors

Related Maths GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Comound interest: A car is bought for the price of £12 000, but its value depreciates every year by 8%. Calculate, how much will the car be worth in 5 years


What is the area of a circle with a diameter of 3cm? (To 2 d.p.)


There are 420 balls in a ball pool. There is a combination of violet, blue, yellow and green balls. 2/7 are violet, 35% are blue and the ratio of yellow to green is 4:5. How many of each colour ball is there in the ball pool?


x = 0.045 (45 recurring). Prove algebraically that x can be written as 1/22


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning